The present disclosure relates to a gate apparatus, a communication apparatus, a communication system, a gate control method, and a program, and more particularly to a gate apparatus, a communication apparatus, a communication system, a gate control method, and a program for identifying a person who carries a communication terminal by performing communication with the communication terminal that the person owns, and thus performing control such as opening and closing of a gate.
Most current automatic ticket examining systems include a reader/writer capable of performing proximity wireless communication in a ticket examining machine. When an IC card, a mobile terminal, or the like that a person owns comes into contact with or approaches the reader/writer, communication is performed between the reader/writer and the IC card or the mobile terminal and thus necessary processing, such as authentication processing or fare adjustment, is performed. Control is performed such as opening a gate under the condition that completion of these processing tasks has been confirmed.
In the system using the reader/writer, a user who is going to go through a ticket examination has to take out the IC card or the mobile terminal that he/she owns and to cause the IC card or the mobile terminal to be brought into proximity to the reader/writer. However, for example, in a case where the user carries many items of baggage, the user may have difficulty taking out the IC card or the mobile terminal and causing the IC card or the mobile terminal to be brought into proximity to the reader/writer. Furthermore, an older person who uses a cane or a wheelchair user may also have difficulty taking out the IC card or the mobile terminal and causing the IC card or the mobile terminal to be brought into proximity to the reader/writer. Additionally, in most cases, such a person as one with poor eyesight may have difficulty determining a position of the reader/writer clearly.
A gate apparatus in the related art in which the IC card or the mobile terminal that does not have to be brought proximity to the reader/writer is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2012-190371 and 2012-194720.
Disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2012-190371 and 2012-194720 is a system in which communication between a communication unit of a gate apparatus and a communication terminal that the user owns is performed as human body communication through a human body and thus the communication between the communication unit of the gate apparatus and the communication terminal is possible without the user taking out the IC card or the communication terminal.
Moreover, the human body communication is a communication technology by which the communication is performed with a human body serving as a communication medium, and is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-324774 and the like.
However, the system that uses the human body communication has such a problem as one in which when pedestrians enter the gate apparatus in succession, the pedestrians in succession are difficult to identify.
In the human body communication, communication data is transferred even between different approaching human bodies. For this reason, even when a preceding pedestrian does not carry a communication terminal, communication with a communication terminal that a following pedestrian carries is performed through the human body of the following pedestrian from the human body of the preceding pedestrian. As a result, for example, even though it is difficult to distinguish between the preceding pedestrian and the following pedestrian who pass through the gate and the preceding pedestrian does not carry a communication terminal, there is a likelihood that erroneous processing will be performed such as one in which the preceding pedestrian is allowed to pass through the gate due to the communication with the communication terminal that the following pedestrian carries.